This piece deals with what could be regarded as a relatively minor nuclear hurdle compared to, for example, the NRC licensing process. But it does not take much interference to disrupt an efficient, punctual, economic manufacturing process and turn it into a lobbyist ridden, indeterminant trip to apparatchik-land.
"Carter shut down nuclear fuel reprocessing in 1977."
Yup, by executive order. Reagan rescinded it shortly after taking office, but the industry wasn't going to invest huge sums into developing something that could be shut down again on a single politician's whim, so here we are.
No reprocessing "spent" fuel is utterly idiotic. Only a small fraction of the fissile fuel is actually used up during the first pass through a light-water reactor. Plus reprocessing reduces the amount of long-lived waste that need to be stored by orders of magnitude.
China National Nuclear Power expertise in sodium cooled fast reactors continued to increase after TerraPower was forced to quit the joint project in 2018. The CFR-600 will start producing power in 2023. Russia is supplying the fuel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFR-600
"Carter shut down nuclear fuel reprocessing in 1977."
Yup, by executive order. Reagan rescinded it shortly after taking office, but the industry wasn't going to invest huge sums into developing something that could be shut down again on a single politician's whim, so here we are.
No reprocessing "spent" fuel is utterly idiotic. Only a small fraction of the fissile fuel is actually used up during the first pass through a light-water reactor. Plus reprocessing reduces the amount of long-lived waste that need to be stored by orders of magnitude.
Abolish Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act.
Allow all allies to enrich and reprocess nuclear fuel.
End global dependence on Russian enrichment monopoly.
https://twitter.com/Gen_Atomic/status/1631338219781464075
All this could change on a dime. 2022 showed us that.
Granted that situation is absurdly different than switching to lignite and hoarding LNG to save your a55. Scale, time, money. We get it.
But Ayn Rand said “ we can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.“.
Channeling Doomberg, bet on physics against pablum.
The physics chickens are coming home to roost. They are on foot, not peregrine falcons so it might take a bit.
China National Nuclear Power expertise in sodium cooled fast reactors continued to increase after TerraPower was forced to quit the joint project in 2018. The CFR-600 will start producing power in 2023. Russia is supplying the fuel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFR-600